evanroth

On Monday night, we went to check out Speedshow, an internet cafe takeover staged by Evan Roth (whose work is at MoMA for “Talk To Me”) and curated by Aram Bartholl (of Dead Drops). It surprised me that traditional style internet cafes still exist and this one at 90 Bowery is a throwback to those from the ’90s and early 2000s, with tons of kids playing first person shooter video games. It’s in the basement of the building down a narrow staircase, lending further mystique in a neighborhood known for its secret underground passageways.

I met Evan for the first time at Ars Electronica in 2006 riding the GRL wave. The following years we kept meeting up in the same shows all over the globe and became good friends. I only know a few artists who have been that influential for a whole generation of internet aware artists and art aware coders in the recent past.

I always admired Evan for his radical openness. It takes a lot of guts as an artist to open up and share your artist practice to such an extend. Creating tools, generate and share open source code that enables everyone to make and distribute art online or in public space is Evans mission. His work is full of hacks for the browser and the city! They range from clever every day micro interventions on an air plane, to digital tools which change they way of thinking for a whole generation of writers.